Bird

Rating:
Summary: Unblinking honesty
Review: "Bird" has had to withstand constant comparison to "Round Midnight", and my friends usually choose the latter as their favorite "Jazz Bio". As good as 'Round Midnight is, it is important to remember that "Bird" is the one based in fact, and the truth isn't always a pretty thing.

Every time I watch this film, I marvel at how Forest Whitaker renders the musician/addict with such pathos and compassion. Like his friends and lovers in the film, the viewer never loses a sense of empathy and willingness to help, no matter how futile such help may seem.

The supporting cast also delivers some fine performances. Diane Venora is strong and sympathetic as Chan Parker. And Samuel E. Wright presents a light and breezy Dizzy Gillespie, unburdened by the perils of drug abuse. Combined, they provide a perfect counterweight to Whitaker's dark and brooding Bird.

While the music in the film is wonderful to hear and beautifully recorded, the topic of why Bird was a musical giant is carefully avoided. I think that this was a wise choice by Eastwood, as it helps make Whitaker's Charlie Parker all the more accessible to us mere mortals. Tackling a personality as complex as Bird's within a single film would have been an unachievable and necessarily diluting task. Focusing primarily on his personal sphere makes for a much more satisfying film experience. Eastwood clearly did not intend for this to be the definitive biography of Charlie Parker, but instead, a more universal character study. Those who need to know more will find many excellent and detailed bios available.

Rating:
Summary: Birdland Revisited....
Review: "Bird" is an excellent film depicting the music and downfall of American Jazz legend Charlie Parker. This labor of love Directed by Clint Eastwood takes us from the early beginnings of "Bird"s" musical career as a saxophonist, playing with such greats as Dizzy Gilespie(who gave him his nickname "Yardbird"), to his eventual self destruction and death due to his abusive life style. Eastwood was awarded Best Director for this film at the Golden Globes.

Forest Whitaker turns in a superb performance as the strung out musician, as does Diane Venora as his wife who supported him wholeheartedly but could not help him. Whitaker and Venora were also both honored for their work, Whitaker with Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival and Venora was the New York Film Critics choice for Best Supporting actress.

The Soundtrack, mostly Parker's music was remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1 and is outstanding.It too was awarded with Best Sound at the Academy Awards.One of the songs that really stood out for me was "Bird's" rendition of "Laura" from the film noir of the same name.

The film does not glamorize Parker's life, but is an honest look at his departure from life and dependence on drugs.We see him turn inward at the loss of a child, the attempt at suicide, desperate attempts at finding work, and his depression at the change in the music world during the rock and roll revolution in the 50's, and finally his death at such a young age.

As far as the DVD, the sound was very good in the Dolby Dig 5.1.The picture was presented in the original widescreen aspect, but was very dark in places, making the actors undistinguishable at times.This may have been the way the film was made due to the dark content of the story. It was slightly distracting (my only reason for 4 stars) but otherwise an engrossing well made story with a great soundtrack.

Bebop Lives On in this film........Laurie

Rating:
Summary: Unblinking honesty
Review: "Bird" has had to withstand constant comparison to "Round Midnight", and my friends usually choose the latter as their favorite "Jazz Bio". As good as 'Round Midnight is, it is important to remember that "Bird" is the one based in fact, and the truth isn't always a pretty thing.

Every time I watch this film, I marvel at how Forest Whitaker renders the musician/addict with such pathos and compassion. Like his friends and lovers in the film, the viewer never loses a sense of empathy and willingness to help, no matter how futile such help may seem.

The supporting cast also delivers some fine performances. Diane Venora is strong and sympathetic as Chan Parker. And Samuel E. Wright presents a light and breezy Dizzy Gillespie, unburdened by the perils of drug abuse. Combined, they provide a perfect counterweight to Whitaker's dark and brooding Bird.

While the music in the film is wonderful to hear and beautifully recorded, the topic of why Bird was a musical giant is carefully avoided. I think that this was a wise choice by Eastwood, as it helps make Whitaker's Charlie Parker all the more accessible to us mere mortals. Tackling a personality as complex as Bird's within a single film would have been an unachievable and necessarily diluting task. Focusing primarily on his personal sphere makes for a much more satisfying film experience. Eastwood clearly did not intend for this to be the definitive biography of Charlie Parker, but instead, a more universal character study. Those who need to know more will find many excellent and detailed bios available.

Rating:
Summary: Bird According to Chan Parker
Review: Although I enjoy any movie about modern jazz and its performers, I felt that, despite the tour de force performance by Forest Whitaker, this movie was less than adequate in its treatment of Charlie Parker's life and music. In my opinion, Clint Eastwood overrelied upon the memories of Charlie Parker's fourth wife, elevating her subjective feelings and opinions to absolute fact. She evidently harbored significant animosity towards his first, i.e. African-American, family in Kansas City; and was apparently clueless, in denial, or less than forthcoming about Parker's political views. The fact that Bird was a black man in the pre-civil/human rights era, certainly shaped his music, inner life and personal beliefs, yet the movie ignores this salient fact. Even worse, the focus of the movie is on Bird and his music only after he was "discoverd" by whites. The overreliance upon Bird's history as selectively remembered and/or reported by his fourth wife deprived viewers of a picture of his complex inner and outer lives. But most egregiously, Bird's life and music were divorced from the context of African America and its struggles from which Bird emerged.

Rating:
Summary: GREAT MUSIC, BUT THAT'S ABOUT IT.
Review: Although the soundtrack is very good, it tends to concentrate more on his more "commercial" recordings, such as "The Bird with Strings," rather than on non-studio recordings, which give a truer picture of Parker's genius. His technique was impeccable, arguably the best among sax alto players (and they can be very good).

Some of the characterizations I found hard to take. Michael Zelniker's portrayal of Red Rodney (not all that highly regarded among the bop trumpet players), is played as kind of wimpy amd awe struck.

Diane Salinger's baronness Nica is too dramatically vampy and "European.", I thought.

Clint Eastwood's own fascination with Parker is to be appreciated, of course, and he is to be credited with bringing us a picture of the bop era (bop may be the most important development in jazz), however flawed.

Rating:
Summary: Parker still managed to put out good music in his troubled l
Review: Buster being so envieous of Parker I thought was compelling, heres a man he thought could not play a note as good as he could. Turns out the jazz loving community and the world did, and when Buster tried to pass money to him and he refused, Buster saw for sure who was the greatest alto saxaphone player was... Charlie(Yardbird)Parker.

Rating:
Summary: By far , the finest hour of Clint Easwood !
Review: Eastwood made a real gem with this delicate , haunting and powerful portrait around this living legend : this pioneer of elusive sound sax : Charlie Parker .
Forrest Whitaker played a superb role (the best of his career to date) with this acting . The photography ; the shot angles , the painful script which never falls in the melodrama soap . Eastwood reveals with a supreme maestry his masterful technique as atmosphere creator . Since he was obviously a hard fan of Parker , he left for the eternity this deep insight to the emotional mood of Charlie who died so young (34) and whose early loss still shocks the world jazz . Can you imagine the glorious solo between Bird and Miles Davis for instance with Bill Evans at the piano? . Too beauty to be true , indeed .
Thanks Mr . Eastwood for your double rendition ; to Jazz world and the Cinema .
It is useless to recommend the soundtrack of that film .
Do you know another Laura version which can match with this one ?


Rating:
Summary: [e-mail]
Review: Even though this movie portrays Charlie Parker for the most part as a drunk more so than a musician, I still found it informative and interesting. I would recommend it to any jazz enthusiast.

Rating:
Summary: Never forgot it
Review: Forrest Whittaker is one of the best actors in Hollywood. It's a shame we don't see more of him but he had a triumph with Bird. Some critics have said it wasn't completely accurate. That's true. Bird spent his adult life as an addict and there's nothing romantic or touching about that. Bird's relationship with Chan wasn't as portrayed in the film but the full, unfiltered story of his life would've been more than most audiences could bear. This is the "lite" version, kind of like Lady Sings the Blues but it's still a great film that gives you an idea of it's subject's genius and it well worth the money.

Rating:
Summary: The tragedy, and some of the triumph, of Charlie Parker...
Review: How does one make a mass market movie about a cult figure? Director Clint Eastwood seems to have a satisfying if imperfect answer with BIRD. The movie's plot loosely revolves around the relationship/marriage between modern jazz saxophonist Charlie 'Bird' Parker and his last wife Chan. Criss-crossing this storyline are the two facets of Parker most known to jazz fans: his brilliant musicianship and his alarming self-destructiveness. The movie does involve the use of flashbacks (rather than moving along in a strictly chronological manner), but not to the point of incoherence.

True, the movie doesn't make a strong presentation as to why Parker is widely viewed as being a musical genius (arguably no one in jazz stands taller aesthetically). Those not familiar with Bird might be left pondering what his exact stature is: a one-of-a-kind musician, or picked off an assembly line of equally-talented modern jazz reedmen by Eastwood because his self-destructiveness makes for a more provocative story? Perhaps the answer is that Bird was unique, both as a musician and as a human being--his life was a disjointed blend of triumph and tragedy that translates well to a major motion picture aimed at the general public (something the music itself didn't succeed in doing, particularly during Bird's lifetime).

From what I know of Bird's life, the movie does a bit of a remix job with the facts, but I would say to a lesser extent than most motion picture bios. The cast performs admirably, and the DVD is in letterboxed, 5.1 audio, making this format the recommended one by far. Perhaps BIRD peeks into Parker's life from a bit of a side-angle. However, any faults must be balanced against the fact that the end-product effectively leaves it for the viewer to sort out what it all means, rather than doing the thinking for them by outlining a string of easy-to-digest answers in the plot...just like a great jazz improvisation!